okay straight down to buisness, frankly I dislike picks saying "will you join this spot" or messages from people advertising sites and spots. If people have a real interest in the spot they will find it themselves, same goes for websites but i understand that there's no point to a spot if your the only member and you have no one to talk about your passion with and since we're all one big fanpop family the more of us the merrier a spot generally is, so rather than whining about it i have decided to offer up some solutions. Although the annoying person with in me still feels the need to put in some 'don't' but i promise not to go on too long :D I will try and say what i do want to see and will give props if i see people actually taking this advice on board

firstly before i start, the big no, no, please don't send people messages advertising spots and sites, it’s annoying and I’m sure everyone wants a spam free fanpop

links

The most obvious way to advertise a spot or website is to put some links up, i think three is the most can you can put up of the same link (rightly so) so use them wisely, the best way to do this is not to put them in unrelated, popular spots like fanpop but to put them in different related spots,
e.g. if you had made a spot for a tv character, it has no relation to fanpop so don't link it to fanpop (this is technically miscategorized) instead why not put a link to the show iself, a link to the spot of the actor/actress who plays that character, you don't necessarily have to put as many as you can but I guess if you really wanted to you could then put a link to a popular couple they are involved in

picks

another big no, no for me is the "will you join the so and so spot" pick, there really is no point to these picks, they are not opinionated and won't get anymore advertising than links, just more comments, again they're annoying and spammy

the reason why people like picks so much is to state their opinion and so creating a none opinion pick will not draw in the interest, interesting picks will draw in interest

e.g. if i were to create a spot for the brilliant dave lui i could ask in the fanpop users spot

"what's your favorite thing about dave"

and then put a link in the comments

or again in the fanpop users spot

link

and then pick dave and say something like "that's why i created the dave spot" and then link,

it's easy standard pick stuff or if you want you can get really creative and slip it in anywhere e.g. you could ask in the picks spot

link

then pick dave and link

the same aspect can be applied to tv characters or anything e.g.

i created the spot for the show link (oh yes i'm even advertising right now, i'm that good ;p) and even though it has not come out yet i could ask in the television spot

"which new show are you most looking forward to coming out?" and then link

or in the amy acker spot

"which amy acker co star did you like best" then pick eliza dushku and say "i'm looking forward to seeing them together again in the new show dollhouse" and then link

articles

okay now i really don't want to see article and forums saying

"you should join the dave lu spot because it's awesome"

that's not a article! and not really a forum

what you could do is write a article about your passion e.g. if you created a spot for pigeon racing you could write a article about your own achievements in the sport and put in some images with you and the pigeons in the fanpop users spot and then as always put a link below

Of for a show if created a spot of one couple vs. another couple, you could write a article comparing the couples and then link

other little tips and bits

If your really struggling for fans here’s a few other tips

-you could put a link to the spot under ‘websites’ on your profile page

-you could say something about your passion in your motto on your profile page

-you could use a avatar/icon of your passion

-there are loads of forums about advertising including link or one to link

-you could ever try bribing us by saying it contains picture of john in his chaps

-the more pop quiz questions you ask the better chance you have of people coming across them in the 'super quiz'

Finally THE NUMBER ONE way to get more fans on to a spot is to add loads of brilliant, amazing content

Images on the front page, forums on the front page, picks on the front page, pop quizzes on the front page will all be noticed, even better if you add some brilliant videos or articles and have them featured

okay that's my say and some ideas, don't use all of these that would be a bit excessive just pick a couple that you could do best :D

EDIT:when i wrote this article there wasn't a dave spot but there now is so i guess this was a bit of advertisement for that too
link